1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to structures for supporting books and magazines and more particularly to a book rest for supporting books and magazines in a leaning propped-up attitude and having means for releasibly retaining the pages thereof in an opened position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, there is often a need for supporting a book, magazine or the like in a propped up position so that it can be conveniently read when the person using the book is seated at a desk, library table and the like. When such supporting is needed or desired, the user will normally use one or both hands to accomplish the task and this prevents, or at least makes it difficult for the user to use his or her hands for other purposes. For example, it is difficult for a student, law clerk or anyone else to take notes or otherwise write when using a book for research, reference work or the like.
Some people attempt to ease this problem by leaning the book in a propped up position on any convenient object such as a stack of books placed on the desk or table for that purpose. In the case of magazines, this usually doesn't work very well due to the lack of rigidity of most magazines. Books, of course are more rigid and thus better able to be propped up. However, both books and magazines have a tendency to slide on the surface of the desk or table. Even under the best conditions, propping up books and magazines by leaning them against convenient objects does not provide a complete answer in that the pages have a tendency to close or flip over and thus must be held in the desired open position.
To the best of my knowledge, no book rest structure has been devised or suggested which solves the above described problems.